When a football coach has spent a year at a football club, there is usually a lot to talk about, especially when the club is FC Bayern. Thomas Tuchel has experienced a lot in the past twelve months, which began turbulently and continued turbulently.
But this small service anniversary received little attention, perhaps because there won’t be another one for him with the German record champions. The balance will only be drawn at the end of the season, which is also the end of Tuchel’s involvement in Munich.
Tuchel will come full circle this Saturday in the Bundesliga game against Borussia Dortmund in the Munich Arena. His journey began at the end of March 2023 with the game against his former club, albeit under different sporting conditions.
Back then, the first team played against the second team, this time the second place team is playing against the even worse fourth place team. However, Tuchel believes that doesn’t change the emotionality or explosiveness of the game. “It will feel like it always does when you drive into the stadium.” As always against BVB.
You might think that Tuchel has experienced everything in Munich in the past twelve months. A few moments of happiness and a lot of difficult situations. But there is still something new. For the first time this week, the Bayern coach received completely happy, good-humored German national players after an international break.
However, there weren’t as many there as before: only Jamal Musiala, Joshua Kimmich and substitute Thomas Müller, because Manuel Neuer is injured – the goalkeeper will once again be represented by Sven Ulreich against Dortmund – and Leroy Sané was suspended. National coach Julian Nagelsmann did without Leon Goretzka and Serge Gnabry, who was out for a long time.
Now it’s a good thing that Bayern have picked themselves up over the past few weeks. Maybe not quite on the way to their old strength, but at least they are on the way to the mentality that characterized the German record champions for many years.
The momentum that Kimmich, Musiala and Müller brought with them may not necessarily be necessary, but of course it doesn’t hurt either. At least as important for Bayern as the national players’ exhilaration is that top scorer Harry Kane is fit after his ankle injury.
© dpa/Tom Weller
The fact that the national team no longer has a majority of players from Dortmund and Munich is also a sign of the pecking order in German football that has faltered this season. And one for those players who have previously taken a nomination for the DFB selection almost for granted and, in Nagelsmann’s eyes, have difficulties with a role other than that of a regular player.
Goretzka probably took the national coach’s decision hard because he had recently performed convincingly at Bayern. Now it’s not just Nagelsmann who will take a close look at how the midfielder deals with the setback. However, Tuchel is not worried that Goretzka’s performance will suffer, on the contrary. “If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t have noticed. Neither in his commitment nor in his ambition or in the quality of his training,” said the Bayern coach.
Good form in the final phase of the season could help Goretzka qualify for the European Championship squad – as could the insight that he can also play an important role for the team on the bench. In any case, Nagelsmann emphasized, the door is not completely closed yet.